Are Ants Taking Over Your Home?

With over a dozen types of Ants commonly found in South Florida, residential infestations are bound to happen. Are there ants lurking around your home or property? Do their numbers seem endless?

Due to Miami’s varying weather patterns, environmental conditions such as heavy rain fall, extreme drought and colder than average temperatures can all be responsible for driving ants on to your property.

Many colonies can inhabit your property at a time, with only a small number of foragers menacing your food, trash, and any standing water present.

From there, depending on the species of ant, these colonies can eat into the foundation of your residence and move into multiple places on your property, from the nooks and crannies of your walls, on site plants, or even into the electrical wiring.

Property Pests: What Can They Do?

Even with the occasional ant encounter, the main threat of an ant infestation is their ability to find shelter in the toughest to reach, but possibly sensitive areas in a building.

They can also harass your personal stores of food, the integrity of any fixtures, and your lawn with enough time. Various ant species can range from being a nuisance to even harming you, your children, or your pets due to their aggressive nature.

Did you know…Crazy Ants, a South American species that has recently invaded Florida, has been known to infest electronics, including transformers and household wiring.

How Can You Control Your Ant Problem?

Direct treatment of the colony is the most preferable method, due to the presence of the queen, most of the brood and worker ants. However, finding these nesting sites can be difficult due to the nature of the ant species.

Options to keep ants from getting into their preferred parts of your property include:

Eliminate natural bridges to the home (tree branches, shrubs or vines).

One Two Tree: Pest Free

Creating a barrier around the perimeter of a structure by applying specialized products is one aspect of comprehensive pest control application.

Ant Control Process

Some of the other steps include a thorough inspection of a home or office to identify the specific type of ants, location of their entry points, nesting locations and determining the best method/type of product to be used to control the population.

Our technicians are licensed, trained and educated in the identification/ treatment of ants, their nesting places and commonly traveled trails. Thoroughness and attention to detail is also something our technicians pride themselves on when providing a solution to your ant problem.

Eco-Friendly Ant Control Solutions

Our arsenal of products also includes treatment options for environmentally sensitive people, and pet-safe choices. Over-the-counter and do-it-yourself products are typically temporary, as they only kill or control the ants you see, can be dangerous to handle, and may not offer the best solution. We are just a phone call or click away!

Ant Control Overiew

One Two Tree’s Pest Control Division Manager:Dusty Montiel

We asked our Pest Control Manager, Dusty Montiel, to speak about Ants and how they can be treated in our homes.

Originally Posted on Youtube.

Video Transcript

Ants and roaches are similar pests as far as their invasiveness into homes. But they do have different ways of control, and these pests live in different ways. Ants have colonies, and are bred to have a different job and order within the colonies. So when we see an ant inside or outside of your home, that is a worker ant, and they have orders. Their primary duty is to go look for food and bring it back to the colony. When we have had calls with customers that say: “Well I sprayed the ant with the contact insecticide and killed the ant, but I am still seeing infestations”. Because when you’re killing an ant that you see visually outside, in your home, or in your kitchen, you’re just killing one out of thousands. Sometimes, there are even millions of ants that are just harvesting and out looking for food. How we can control this is by using products that they come in contact with, digest and eat, or that they take back to the colony, which is the source of where they are coming from. This can be used to eliminate them from that point. This is very important because we have different tools and different ways of targeting these ants. We know how to appropriately treat cases, and one of the things is pest I.D, where we have to first take a look at what ants you’re dealing with because even though they’re ants and they do live in colonies, they have different ways of harvesting. There are ants that have multiple colony ants, so if you’re targeting these ants with baits, you need to be able to broad apply the bait to different areas of your home. Because if you kill one ant that might be in your kitchen, that ant might not be necessarily the same ant in the colony of the ant you’re seeing in your bathroom. Some ants do have multiple colonies. So it’s very important that you take a look, and do your pest identification so you know how to treat.

Common Ants in South Florida

Crazy Ants (Sugar Ants)

Paratrechina pubens

An invasive species from South America, this ant is known to target electrical wiring in homes. These ants need specialized control methods due to their resistance to standard insecticides.

Carpenter Ants

Camponotus floridanus

One of the most common South Florida ant species, carpenter ants often cause problems for homeowners. Their nests are often hidden around areas close to large food sources and moisture.

Fire Ants (Native/Imported)

Solenopsis invicta

Fire ants are one of the most feared and aggressive ant species in South Florida. They are most active when the ground is moist, which is a common condition around this part of the country.

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Ant Control: Carpenter, Fire & Crazy by One Two Tree Miami

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